OT: Stubhub question

by JBImaknee on Jul 20, 2008 10:32 AM CDT

Quick question for yall:

I'm looking to buy tickets to the Angels / Rangers series in late August, and I found some great deals for seats at Stubhub: even after their ridiculous shipping fees they're much cheaper than buying new tickets off the Angels website/Ticketmaster.

I've never bought of Stubhub before, and a little search of epinions and other such sites showed a TON of complaints by unhappy people who got screwed. I'm wondering if their difficulties are a common thing, or is this a selection bias where only people with bad experiences talk about it online?

Have any of you had bad exeperiences? Or is it safe to use?

0 recs | Comment 26 comments

Story-email Email Printer Print

Comments

all good experiences

I’ve used Stubhub around 10 times and have never had a problem. If you’re buying now for a game in late August, then there’s more than enough time for them to fix any issues that may come up. I just used them for tickets to a Ranger game in late August, and the tickets were cheaper than face value even after fees.

My worst experience: I bought tickets to the Big East Championship game the night before, I get a call the next day (on the way to NYC) that there were problems with my tickets, but they offered me better tickets at the same price so all was good with the world.

by ksf42001 on Jul 20, 2008 10:42 AM CDT 0 recs

never bad experience

going sat aug 30th front row right field – paid $50 total.

make sure you get $20 off coupon – or at a minimum $10 off.

$10 codes

by sam in so cal on Jul 20, 2008 11:02 AM CDT 0 recs

I've been screwed by them once

and I swore I’d never use them again… I hate them, but there’s really no other good option out there. They’re the best reseller for good tickets that I’ve found.

The 40 Trumps All!!!

by thedirkatron on Jul 20, 2008 11:41 AM CDT 0 recs

I got screwed once on Opening Day two years ago

But they came through and I got tickets but they were not the ones I bought when I ordered them. Before that I used them several times and they delivered on time. I has to do with the people that have the tickets StubHub is just the middle man.

"Would you mind walking a time or two so I could drive in some runs"? Milton Bradley

by boomer1 on Jul 20, 2008 12:00 PM CDT 0 recs

I've used it for concerts

always has been a good experience.

by Kevin McBrayer on Jul 20, 2008 1:53 PM CDT 0 recs

My wide and I go to the home opener

every year and always use Stubhub. In 2007, we arrived early to see batting practice and presented our tickets at the gate. The person at the gate said that the tickets would not scan and we needed to go to the ticket office. She said sometimes they just don’t scan. As we walked to the ticket window, I told my wife that we had been screwed by Stubhub. After waiting in line until 12:30 for a 1:05 start, we were told that the owner of these tickets had reported them lost and new tickets were printed and sent to him. These were not valid. No only was I going to miss the first home opener in10 years, I was out the $300.00 + I had spent on the tickets. When we got to our car, I was still livid and decided to call Stubhub. The girl could not have been more helpful. She said she would look to see if she could find comparable tickets. She founf tickets not quite as good as the ones I had purchased, but good seats, and sent us to the Stubhub office in the hotel close to the ballpark. By the time we got into the game, we had missed the first inning. Following up with Stubhub later that week, I was given a $75.00 credit for the difference on the ticket prices and another $50.00 for the hassel. It wasn’t great, but they stood by their ticket sale and got us into the game. I still use them each time we go to any baseball game at any ballpark, and have had no trouble since.

I did go to the seats we had purchased and asked the guy sitting in one of the seats if he was the season ticket owner. He was and I proceeded to quite strongly, where everybody around could hear, how he had cheated my wife and I. Some of the people around apparently knew him and began to really go after him. I just stood there and watched. I stood beside him for the top of the inning just to make him uncomfortable, then went back two inninngs later just to piss him off..

"The path you choose, you also choose its destination..."

by pro82 on Jul 20, 2008 2:07 PM CDT 0 recs

Actually, I went with my wife that year...

...my wide doesn’t like baseball.

"The path you choose, you also choose its destination..."

by pro82 on Jul 20, 2008 2:10 PM CDT up 0 recs

I would have beat his ass

"Would you mind walking a time or two so I could drive in some runs"? Milton Bradley

by boomer1 on Jul 20, 2008 2:52 PM CDT up 0 recs

That sucks, dude

But bear in mind that that stuff does actually happen.

My Dad was a season ticket holder for a while and we usually got the tickets in the mail about the same time every year. One year they didn’t come and after a week or so my Dad called in and the office said they had sent them. So we waited another week or so and called back. They checked with FedEx (or whatever… don’t remember exactly what sort of verication process they did… my Dad handled it all I just got the cliff notes) and it said the tickets had been picked up and delivered, so at that point my Dad had to go into the Rangers’ office and sign some stuff to get the tickets declared stolen and get new tickets sent to us. The Rangers were very, very nice to us, iirc, but it sucked because the rest of the season people would show up to our seats with tickets they had bought from scalpers and then we had to go through the hassle of telling people what had happened and that they couldn’t sit there. And people would get mad at us and accuse us of cheating them, but, trust me, we did NOT freaking cheat them. Luckily the usher got to know my Dad and would run down whenever she saw something happening and explain it to them for us, but people would always assume we had screwed them when we didn’t.

How do you know something similar hadn’t happened to him? I assume you must’ve gotten some indication from him that, yah, he did it.

Cause if you did that rude shit to some dude who really did get his tickets stolen, then shame the fuck on you, dude.

The 40 Trumps All!!!

by thedirkatron on Jul 20, 2008 5:27 PM CDT up 0 recs

I would think if the tickets were declared stolen

that they wouldn’t scan, like pro82 said happened to him. Was that before barcode days?

I'm undefeated in fights. Have I been in any? No. Thats because people know my f'ing status. Don't mess with the elite. - Miles

by Dirk Diggler on Jul 20, 2008 6:39 PM CDT up 0 recs

Yes

it was pre-barcode days.

And I talked to my Dad tonight and asked him about what happened to him and it was a bit different than I remembered. Apparently when the package came it looked “funny”. It wasn’t sealed right. And when my Dad opened the package it became very obvious that someone had opened it and then tried to reseal it. He had four season tickets, and when he looked through one whole season ticket packet was missing. So the thief only stole one seat worth of season tickets and left us the other three… maybe thinking we wouldn’t notice.

But people really would come down every once in a while and try to sit in our seat, and every single time they had obviously bought the ticket from a scalper.

The 40 Trumps All!!!

by thedirkatron on Jul 20, 2008 7:55 PM CDT up 0 recs

No...

...he went ahead and put the first set of tickets on Stubhub then used the replacement tickets himself. If he were honest about it, he would have called Stubhub and cancelled his sale on their website. He tried to get the best of both worlds…sold a set and used a set. He had one earlier complaint on Stubhub for similar action. All he ever said was “So…I don’t know what you’re talking about”! He could have explained if it had been an honest error. I gave him an opportunity. You took that opportunit to explain…he didn’t care.

Point being, they do stand behind their tickets

"The path you choose, you also choose its destination..."

by pro82 on Jul 20, 2008 8:00 PM CDT up 0 recs

I would have still beat his ass...

"Would you mind walking a time or two so I could drive in some runs"? Milton Bradley

by boomer1 on Jul 20, 2008 8:05 PM CDT up 0 recs

Okay

It sounds like you got a pretty good indication that the guy was running a douchey scam.

That sucks.

Hopefully you turned Rangers’ security onto his little scam cause they do NOT take that shit lightly.

The 40 Trumps All!!!

by thedirkatron on Jul 20, 2008 8:17 PM CDT up 0 recs

i've only used it a couple times

but have never had a problem. if you buy soon i doubt you would be at any risk because we are talking a month in advance. most problems probably occur with people buying tickets very close to the time of the game.

by selppuc on Jul 20, 2008 3:10 PM CDT 0 recs

I used them without a problem

I haven’t in a few years since I bought season tickets, but we used to use them for Rangers tickets and always got good seats in the commissioner’s box or behind the batting circle, usually with parking passes. We had to pay over face value though. Did you check eBay? Usually you can get good seats at less than face value on eBay…at least for the Rangers…oh, and the Rockies…in 2005 at least! LOL

http://www.mvn.com/milb-rangers

For old times sake...C'mon Kelly! :-)

by Beverly23 on Jul 20, 2008 3:29 PM CDT 0 recs

I've only used it at Yankee Stadium vs. Rays

And it was for bleacher seats, but everything was fine.

I did have a semi-scare since we weren’t able to arrive until after the game started, and the stubhub ticket coach was closed, but we found out that they had sent the tickets to the Yankees ticket office. So, we just picked them up there.

by Requiem on Jul 20, 2008 5:39 PM CDT 0 recs

Stubhub

I only used it one time and they sent tickets for the wrong day. Luckily I was on vacation and it really didn’t matter which day we went.

"So you think the Celtics will beat Detroit? Hell will freeze over before that happens, mark my words." miles 5/20/08

by badradiorules on Jul 20, 2008 6:35 PM CDT 0 recs

no problem

I got CF front row bleacher seats last year. I picked them up the day of the game at a local hotel near RBiA. I would use them again.

"An effortless 98" - Scott Gardner after Neftali Feliz's first AA pitch

by RangerMad on Jul 20, 2008 9:04 PM CDT 0 recs

Stubhub is cool

I’ve used them several times; no problem. Although, if you’re in DFR, go through www.tadfw.com. Nice guys and they take care of you. I always call a guy called Caddy (never met him; the girlfrends friend knows him).

Nothing pithy here. Please move long.

by WyoRanger on Jul 20, 2008 10:00 PM CDT 0 recs

all i can say is wow

i went to the website. $50 for season parking to TEX – NYY games, and tickets 60% – 70% higher on the comparable seats i looked at vis-a-vis stubhub.

there are tickets listed on stubhub in the lower infield (including season parking) for $75, and they are listed at $125 on that site.

i have 60-70 completed sales on stubhub and 4 purchases. maybe i’m biased, but i am very surprised that people still use b&m for tickets. stubhub has a guarantee, and they do weed out rouge sellers.

for the most part the sellers are good. i sold seats to a clown that left the tickets at home (in san antonio), and stubhub called me day of game so that we could facilitate tickets at will call. i would argue that good sellers are the rule rather than the exception. it is, after all, owned by ebay (for what that’s worth).

to your point, i bet that they’re nice guys that take care of you. for an extra $100/pair of tickets i would take care of people, too.

the commission of 10% eats into the purchasers savings, but i gave a link with several $10 off codes. i used $20 off codes 3 of the 4 times i purchased.

with regard to security, they are moving to e-tickets for mlb – greater security and cheaper shipping. the one thing i don;t like about the mlb partnership with stubhub is the rangers selling premium seats on stubhub – just a suspicion i have.

by sam in so cal on Jul 21, 2008 11:53 AM CDT up 0 recs

e-tickets

I think I would have bought from Stubhub had the tickets been e-tickets. After the 10% fee and the ridiculous fedex requirement (for a game 1+months out), it was cheaper to buy tickets on ebay. But if they indeed go to e-tickets everywhere, I’ll keep them in mind for the future.

Its a shame that a few rotten apple sellers can ruin a site’s reputation, which is what I kind of see happening with them. There is a pretty significant selection bias with reviews of websites like that – people with good experiences usually don’t review places, but people who are upset often do. That’s why I posted here. Hopefully e-tickets will allow some quality control once the tickets get into stub-hub’s hands

Do you think the Rangers are selling tickets above face value? Or do you think they are undercutting the second-hand market by selling cheaper seats to maximize their profit?

by JBImaknee on Jul 21, 2008 12:34 PM CDT up 0 recs

first, let me say that Tribune publicly sold premium seats (first rows behind home plate) for premium games (such as opening day) for several hundred or a few thousand dollars.

a lot of times i see batches of ranger tickets in similar locations with similar postings appearing at the same time for fair market value which is above what the seats cost on the ranger web site. i only follow games where i have listings, so i only look at a handful of premium games.

it is possible that people buy groups of tickets and resell them (which i have done), but i can’t say for sure. maybe it’s brokers who have too much inventory. again, it was just my opinion, but i can see that the team(s) having a relationship with stubhub might facilitate team scalping. i don’t know of anything that precludes this from happening (free market selling as opposed to setting prices and making all seats available to buyers at the listed prices).

i would be very interested to know if someone could give the team’s position on this.

by sam in so cal on Jul 21, 2008 3:33 PM CDT up 0 recs

Never really compared prices

Stubhub has worked very nice. But as I wrote in another thread, I was going to Boston to see the Red Sox get their 2004 WS rings and the guy I bought tix from on ebay backed out just days before leaving (I bought the tix in December and they were getting huge prices for them later, so I’m guessing that’s why the guy screwed me). Anyhow, I was in a lurch so I called Caddy at www.tafw.com and they came through (at a comparable price to stubhub). I’m not really saying one is better than the other, but when you’re in a crunch, it’s nice to actually talk to someone versus just trying an internet purchase.

Nothing pithy here. Please move long.

by WyoRanger on Jul 21, 2008 3:45 PM CDT up 0 recs

Thanks everyone

your comments were helpful. Seems like the consensus is that Stubhub is probably okay this far in advance, but there is at least a fair chance of getting screwed by the seller or something else goes wrong (and since I’m buying tickets for my wife and sister-in-law, best not to take the chance). Sounds like Stubhub really needs to do some quality control on their sellers…

FYI – I ended up going with Ebay, and I got as good a deal on the seats there with cheaper shipping/fees and the seller had a very clean history. I was impressed by the selection available there – not as many good deals Stubhub, but some good options nonetheless.

by JBImaknee on Jul 20, 2008 11:41 PM CDT 0 recs